All's well that ends well after rescue on tube line for actor

Drama: Chuk Iwuji leapt off the platform as train approached
13 April 2012

A Shakepearean actor was faced with a real-life drama on the way to rehearsals when he rescued a woman who had fallen on to a Tube line.

Chuk Iwuji, 32, was travelling to rehearsals for a production of Richard III in Stratford-upon-Avon when he saw the woman lying on the track at Clapham Common station.

The Royal Shakespeare Company actor and another traveller leapt to help and dragged her to safety as a train was pulling into the platform.

Mr Iwuji said today: "There was a moment when I thought it was not going to stop in time. I do not see it as heroic. It was just a reaction to a situation and did not seem heroic at the time."

The actor, who was born in Nigeria but went to school in the UK, described how he was travelling from the home he shares with his brother in Clapham to Stratford on Monday morning. He was listening to music, waiting for a Northern line train when he heard screaming.

He said: "I heard a couple of screams which made me move my head to look round. This girl was on the tracks. It looked like she was doing some kind of head-stand.

"She was obviously trapped and could not move. She was upside down and it was when the train was just pulling in."

Mr Iwuji said a man ahead of him jumped to help her first which "triggered" him to do the same and the pair managed to drag her to safety.

The actor even went back on to the tracks once the woman was on the platform to rescue her shoe, which had been left behind.

He said: "It all happened in about five minutes. She was conscious afterwards but in shock and didn't say anything to me. Her face was half covered in soot.

"Some attendants took her off very gingerly. I had to catch that train to be in time for rehearsals but I wish I had found out what her story was and who the guy was who initially jumped in.

"I would have liked to have spoken to her, just to give it some sort of completion."

Mr Iwuji said another man who followed him on to the Tube asked him "You realise that you saved her life?", to which he replied "I guess so."

The actor has been in several RSC productions, including Coriolanus, Julius Caesar and The Merry Wives Of Windsor, and is rehearsing to play Henry VI in Richard III, which starts in Stratford on Friday.

Transport for London confirmed that a woman fell on to the Tube line at Clapham Common station on Monday at 9.44am and was helped back up by two members of the public.

TfL added that the train driver had seen on his in-cab CCTV that there was a problem and was able to stop the train before it reached the platform. Station staff called an ambulance and the woman was taken to St George's Hospital in Tooting.

A London Underground spokesman said: "We thank the two members of the public who helped this passenger.

"However, we would caution very strongly against people risking their lives by going onto the track, which is highly dangerous. Our staff are well trained to deal with such emergencies, and, as this incident shows, our safety procedures work."

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